After Michigan did not reciprocate Emoni Bates' interest in the program, and Bates selected Eastern Michigan as his destination, and the two teams drew each other on the upcoming schedule, you knew Bates would come ready to play. The ole chip on your shoulder, revenge game sort of thing. Bates came ready to play and in the process, helped propel his Eastern Michigan Eagles to a near-upset of the Wolverines at neutral Little Caesars Arena in Detroit tonight, falling just short by a score of 88-83. Michigan's at-times lackadaisical defense, poor showing at the free throw line, and all-around less-than-stellar effort helped make it a rollercoaster, but a win is a win. 

Eastern Michigan showed they were ready to play right from the jump. They started 5/6 from the field to lead 11-9 at the first TO. Bates was making shots from all over the court and his sidekick for the evening, guard Noah Farrakhan, was electric off the dribble from the opening tip-off. Michigan had difficulty defending his dribble-drive penetration and the combination of Farrakhan's on-ball aggressiveness and Bates' ability to nail tough shots had EMU playing neck-and-neck with Michigan throughout the first half. After Bates made a three with 7:50 to go in the first half, the Eagles led 22-21. At that juncture, EMU was shooting over 50% from the field and Michigan was just 3/10 from beyond the arc. 

On Michigan's offensive side of the ball, Terrance Williams played well (a story of the night), as did Hunter Dickinson, but the big man played just 13 minutes in the first half, a rather strange decision given that he had zero fouls and the team was struggling without him. Michigan didn't get the same level of dominance from Jett Howard on offense in this one as we saw in the first game, and Jaelin Llewellyn was dreadful in the first half on offense. Yet the combination of Dickinson and Williams were enough to carry Michigan to a near tie at halftime. 

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That was in spite of the continued ridiculous shots being made by Bates. In one sequence in the first half Bates swished a fadeaway and then followed it up with a slam on the next possession. A few minutes later, he hit a Steph Curry-esque stepback three from the logo. Michigan did a decent job defending Bates for much of the first half, but it didn't matter. Containing Farrkhan's drives was another story, but in total, the Wolverines only trailed 45-42 at the break, despite EMU shooting nearly 53% from the floor.   

Michigan came out of the halftime break in a stupor, letting the Eagles start on a 6-1 run before a 7-0 run in return, all on the back of Terrance Williams II. TWill knocked down a triple and made a pair of free throws, before Dickinson drew a foul and made both free throws of his own. Just like that, it was 51-50 coming out of the under 16 timeout. The next 10 or so minutes were a seesaw affair, with Michigan going up a few points, only to see EMU come roaring back on top with a mini-run. Neither team led by more than four points for any of this period, as each squad had an answer for the other. In one instance, Kobe Bufkin threw down a slam dunk but then Bates turned around and drew an and-one on the very next possession. That kind of game. 

As the clock ticked down under six minutes, EMU had snatched the largest lead for either team in some time with a tenuous 73-69 margin. Michigan again looked to one of its leaders in this game for an answer, as Williams drew a foul while shooting a three pointer. The Wolverines were dreadful from the free throw line for much of the night and Williams was haunted by horrendous free throw shooting as a freshman, but this night TWill was great from the stripe when his team needed it most. He made all three, the teams traded misses before Michigan got another stop, and then Dickinson connected on a hook shot to give Michigan the lead back, 74-73. The two DMV juniors teaming up to power the Maize & Blue. 

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The two teams traded scores over the next couple minutes and the score sat at 77-77 with just three minutes remaining. Bates, who was still strong for the Eagles in the second half but perhaps not as otherworldly as he'd been in the first 20 minutes, saw a three pointer clang off the iron and that's when Michigan's PG Jaelin Llewellyn finally arrived. After the first ~77 minutes of his Michigan career have been ones to forget, he came up clutch: first Llewellyn finished on an underhand scoop off the glass after a crafty hesitation drive, and following an EMU turnover, drew a foul and made both free throws. A half-minute later Dickinson put back an offensive rebound to make the score 83-77 with 2:06 left.  

EMU wasn't quite done, as a three-point play from Tyson Acuff with 1:27 remaining narrowed the score to one possession and after Williams couldn't make a three, the Eagles had the ball with a chance to tie. The players in green sprinted up the floor but Farrakhan coughed the ball up, Jett Howard tied him up, and the possession arrow favored Michigan. Llewellyn was hacked on the ensuing in-bounds pass and with Michigan in the double bonus, Llewellyn was faced with two huge free throws. He made them both. Michigan would get one more stop and Dickinson's jumper with twenty seconds left sealed it, 87-80. Bates would make one last insane three and the Wolverines would add a free throw before the buzzer to make the final score 88-83. 

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It was not a particularly pretty game from Juwan Howard's crew but there were some highlights. Dickinson was fabulous, playing nearly the entire second half and finishing with 31 points on 13/17 shooting and it still felt like he missed a couple shots he normally makes. Terrance Williams II added 18 points of his own, knocking down three three pointers and crucially, went 7/9 from the line. He also snagged 11 rebounds, 10 of them defensive. Those two players were far and away Michigan's best on the night. Llewellyn was a disaster for much of the contest before a dominant final four or so minutes, playing far better on-ball defense than he had all night and finally getting in rhythm offensively. That Llewellyn is the player Michigan was expecting to get from Princeton. Kobe Bufkin had some moments, while it was a stark comedown for Jett Howard after the dazzling first game offensively, 2/8 from the field, 3/6 from the free throw line, and just nine points. 

Michigan as a team shot 25/40 from the free throw line (62.5%), and that percentage is dramatically higher than it was earlier in the game. 5/21 three point shooting was less than ideal, but the interior mismatch for Dickinson offensively was enough. They got next to nothing from the bench, two makes from Tarris Reed from two but also three ugly free throw attempts (all missed).  Jace Howard made one nice little inside move for a layup but that's it for him. Joey Baker scored one point, committing four fouls in six minutes. Dug McDaniel played 14 minutes but did not find the score sheet, while Isaiah Barnes played his first minutes of the season. He did not record a point. 

For EMU, Bates' 30 points was the story of the night, a bit ahead of Farrakhan's 19. Those two gave Michigan's defense trouble and there will certainly be things for Juwan Howard and Phil Martelli to clean up before Wednesday's game against Pittsburgh. Pitt is 1-1 on the season with a comfortable win over UT-Martin and a blowout defeat at the hands of West Virginia. That game is scheduled for 6:00 PM EST and will be broadcast on ESPNU. There is no content after the jump.